Bears Dropped By Trojans

BERKELEY – The Cal football team's quest to qualify for a bowl game for the second consecutive year will have to wait at least another week after a 41-17 loss to USC on Saturday night at California Memorial Stadium.

The Bears (5-5, 2-5 Pac-12) scored a touchdown on the game's opening drive but managed just a 37-yard field goal by Greg Thomas until midway through the fourth quarter. The Trojans answered Cal's opening score with a touchdown drive of their own and registered 31 unanswered points in the second half to take control.

"We have to own this," Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. "All of us. It's disappointing that we didn't perform better. We knew we had to perform well against a team with that type of talent. We have to regroup on Monday. I know that's exactly what we will do."

Cal quarterback Chase Garbers returned from a four-game absence due to injury but was injured again early in the second quarter and didn't return. Running back Christopher Brown Jr., who rushed for 29 yards on his first two carries, was also sidelined after the Bears' opening drive.

Junior DeShawn Collins rushed for a career-high 103 yards and scored his first career touchdown to culminate Cal's opening drive, a 5-yard run with 12:05 left in the first quarter. He added a 34-yard scoring run with 8:24 remaining in the game.

"I thought he had some nice runs in there," Wilcox said. "He has some good quickness and speed, and I think that showed up. DeShawn has flashed at itmes throughout this fall. It was nice to get him some carries."

Cal star linebacker Evan Weaver had 14 tackles and now has 151 this season, the fourth-best single-season mark in team history. Weaver now has two of the top four single-season marks at Cal.

The Bears are back in action next Saturday for the 122nd Big Game at Stanford. Cal needs one more victory to become bowl-eligible for the second straight year. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. and airs on Pac-12 Networks.

"We just got beat today," Weaver said. "They were better than us. We have to have all our focus on nexzt week because it's a really big game. It would be nice to go win that game, but it's not going to happen without a lot of hard work and everybody showing up."